Rodney Holmes

Rodney Holmes

Rodney Holmes was born in Bronx in New York City. It was apparent early on that he had a gift for drawing, and later on painting, and this went hand and hand with his fascination with science fiction and fantasy art, books and films.

Surrounded by a very eclectic album collection, he fell in love with music as well. Rodney was always fascinated with bands, and particularly the rhythm section. The drums were especially intriguing to him. After he joined the junior band in his elementary school while in the fourth grade, his mother bought him a small four-piece drum kit for Christmas.

By the time Rodney graduated from high school in Hartsdale, N.Y.-just outside of New York City -, he had chosen music over illustrating and painting.

Rodney found himself working with an extremely diverse group of musicians. The Rock bands that he played with didn’t know about his Jazz background, and the Jazz musicians didn’t know about his Rock and more contemporary playing.

He was called to record and tour with the legendary Brecker Brothers, performing on their 1994 Grammy winning album Out Of The Loop and on the Grammy winning song “African Skies”.

Rodney also went on to perform with Steps Ahead, the incredible Wayne Shorter, and many other artists before being called again to join the Santana Band in 1997. During this second stint with Santana (1997-2000), Rodney would go into the studio with the band to work on the Supernatural album. He laid down the drum tracks on the mega hit single “Smooth” with Rob Thomas.